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I’m 67 and I’ve been through the phases of using market indicators to invest in individual stocks and even short term covered calls in my IRA. I’ve also been through the down turns of 2000 and 2008 where, since I was still working and did not need my invested portfolio for income, I could ride it out and use it as a buying opportunity.
I hate it when younger investors refer to a downturn as a buying opportunity for retired individuals. Once retired you are generally in a situation were you must withdraw money each year to live off of.
SO, anyway, I’m now looking for investment clubs for us babyboomers, investing in mutual funds which are far less risky.
Does anyone know of any investing clubs in the Maryland / Delaware area?
I’ve attended a Bogle meeting, but they seem to be more of a buy and hold group.
I’ve been to an IBD meet-up meeting, but they are strictly technical indicators for individual stocks and tech indicators for individual stocks require almost daily monitoring.
I’m looking for local groups or investment forums that deal more with mutual funds. You generally buy them and hold them for 30, 60, or 90 days so you don’t get hit with their “Early Redemption Period” fee. If you are actively trading funds, you look monthly or weekly to see if that fund should be sold to invest in something else. Basically longer term (not long term) investments with smaller risks.
So again, does anyone know of any investor groups or forums that deal with, lets call it “medium term” mutual fund investments?
Like I said, I’ve been to Bogle meetings in Baltimore and Philadelphia. They are a good group, but seem to be more interested in longer term investments.
Before retirement I was working for a local Baltimore Hedge Fund in their market data division. After retirement I wrote some software to show trend information on mutual funds and I demonstrated that software to both groups. Between the groups there were about 30 attendees. They all thought the software was interesting, but no one was interested in actively trading mutual funds.
Their view of funds was more in the 3 to 5 year returns, not the monthly returns for the last year.
I’m in the middle. I don’t want to check the market daily, but I also don’t want to check in quarterly or yearly. I’m looking for that every couple weekends or monthly middle ground.
I’ve attended a Bogle meeting, but they seem to be more of a buy and hold group.
I’m looking for local groups or investment forums that deal more with mutual funds. You generally buy them and hold them for 30, 60, or 90 days so you don’t get hit with their “Early Redemption Period” fee. If you are actively trading funds, you look monthly or weekly to see if that fund should be sold to invest in something else.
Am I hearing you right? Mutual funds are not trading vehicles. They ARE long-term buy and hold investments. Are you aware of this? If any broker has ever recommended that you quickly shift between mutual funds then they are churning your account (illegal). Report them to the S.E.C.
And why aren't you investing in index funds??? The Bogleheads are right. Listen to them!
According to John Bogle it is a mathematical certainty that over a lifetime you cannot beat the indexes by even buying and holding active management (ex- actively managed mutual funds), let alone constantly trading mutual funds after short holding periods.
I have traded individual stocks, short term covered calls, and then came the end of 2008! I started working in the market data division of a local hedge fund in Feb 2009. During that time my trading was restricted by the SEC and I placed most of my IRA funds in managed ETF accounts that never lost money, but rarely beat the market either!
I’m now retired and probably because of my history I want to manage my own investments. At the age of 67 individual stocks are too risky for my goals. Since I am a software developer I have written software to provide extended information on the mutual and ETF fund markets.
I totally disagree that Mutual Funds are strictly long-term buy and hold investments. I consider them to be medium-term investments, not daily like stocks and ETF, but not yearly or buy and hold either. Almost all of the funds I follow have a 30, 60, or 90 day holding period to avoid short term redemption fees.
What I’m trying to do with my software is monitor the performance of the various market sectors and the individual funds in those sectors. Some sectors like Health and Technology are currently outperforming the market while others like bonds and precious metals are underperforming the market. And, within each category you find that certain fund consistently do better than others, probably due to better management. The ETFs are generally in the middle of the pack, not the lowest, but not the highest either! You asked why I’m not in index funds, and that is the reason. I’m not looking for average, I want better than average!
I monitor the market a couple times a month and make decision on what to sell and buy. I moved all my IRA’s to self directed accounts in September, shortly after retirement, and converted all of the ETFs into standard funds. Since then I have only made 3 changes and I have outperformed the market by an average of 1.26% each month. The market was down 0.54% and 2.98% in December and January while I was up 0.78% and 0.94% for both months.
OK, this is called trend following, and many do not feel this it is a safe way to invest. My thoughts are that it is only unsafe if you follow a trend today and then ignore it for a long period of time. It’s not a bad idea to put all of your eggs in a small number of baskets, just watch the baskets closely!
OK, my thermal suit is on, I’m ready for the flames!
i have swapped out funds from time to time to better fit the big picture for more than 25 years and have beaten buy and hold of the s&p 500 by quite alot.
not top performing funds either . just middle of the pack fidelity funds with good long term records.
fidelity insight and fidelity monitor have been doing this for decades and all i do is follow along . .
The idea of trading sectoral funds is appealing, but probably dangerous. Still, I would attend club meetings where these and other possibilities are discussed. Where to find between DC, Baltimore and Annapolis?
The idea of trading sectoral funds is appealing, but probably dangerous. Still, I would attend club meetings where these and other possibilities are discussed. Where to find between DC, Baltimore and Annapolis?
The Fidelity Monitor insight. Has a good history of trading sector funds and identifying sector rotations. Following and staying with their model is a long term hold even if the holdings aren't.
Have you tried searching or asking in the Maryland specific forum on this site?
I personally am having a hard time understanding your strategy of the desire to trade in and out of mutual funds. Some funds that are more prone to short term trading usually have redemption fee's of a specific holding period. It seems to me your risk levels have not been properly assessed & that as a retiree with the experience of 2000 & 08 has you a little shell shocked. Understandable but it sounds like although you've had some recent success you have potential to underperform as market timing is nearly impossible to be consistently correct.
Have you tried searching or asking in the Maryland specific forum on this site?
I personally am having a hard time understanding your strategy of the desire to trade in and out of mutual funds. Some funds that are more prone to short term trading usually have redemption fee's of a specific holding period. It seems to me your risk levels have not been properly assessed & that as a retiree with the experience of 2000 & 08 has you a little shell shocked. Understandable but it sounds like although you've had some recent success you have potential to underperform as market timing is nearly impossible to be consistently correct.
I suspect he is wanting to be a fan of sector rotation and using asset specific mutual funds like emerging markets, frontier markets, regional funds, cap size specific, sector etc etc. Momentum traders in ETF's are a different breed than most individual investors. Probably the Hedge fund influence on him.
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